Epos converses with Dr. Debidatta Aurobinda Mahapatra

byNicolamaria Coppola (EPOS)

EPOS Conversations

South Asia continues to be in turmoil with India and Pakistan engaged in a fierce cold fight over a number of issues, primarily Kashmir. In the following exclusive interview for EPOS, Dr. Debidatta Aurobinda Mahapatra, an expert on conflict management and peace building with a focus on South Asia, and associated with EPOS as Senior Fellow, talks about the state of India-Pakistan relations, violence in Kashmir and related issues, which are not only relevant for South Asia but also for the world

Recently, more than thirty people were killed in Kashmir in exchange of turmoils between Indian security forces and Kashmiri people. Unless it is contained, violence may escalate and plunge the whole region into deadly cycle of attacks with loss of civilian life and consequent economic destruction. India and Pakistan must revive the peace process. The more they procrastinate, the more the stalemate would be hardened. The more they dry the channels of bilateral communication, the more it will be opportune for the spoilers to exploit the volatile situation. EPOS analyst Debidatta Aurobinda Mahapatra analyses the situation from the ground, discussing the ongoing violence in Kahsmir and the challenges that all the actors are going to face, and he gives EPOS' readers an exclusive point of view on the issue

Pakistan’s National Security Advisor (NSA) called off the meeting with his Indian counterpart scheduled for 23 August 2015 at New Delhi. The agreement stipulated that the NSAs would meet to discuss all issues related to terrorism: while India insisted that both the countries must abide by the agreement, Pakistan insisted on expanding the agenda of the talks. Pakistan contended that the talks should be without any conditions and the agenda should include Kashmir. India argued that the composite dialogue can be resumed in a peaceful atmosphere and Kashmir cannot be part of the NSA level talks. Why? In the following exclusive article for EPOS, Debidatta Aurobinda Mahapatra discusses the issue deeply, and gives EPOS readers an illuminating point of view on the question

Two events exacerbated the fragile relations between India and Pakistan, the border skirmishes in January and the violence in Kashmir after execution of one of its Muslim residents by India. These two events impacted negatively the relations of the past decade. The atmosphere of trust and goodwill was at a higher scale before these events. Peace in the subcontinent suffered and the prospects of Kashmir turning violent appeared imminent

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari wrote to India’s newly elected President Pranab Mukherjee that it was imperative that their two countries endeavoured to promote stability, peace and prosperity in the region and sought peaceful resolution of all issues through dialoge. Neverthless, the relations between India and Pakistan appear almost static without any concrete positive developments in sight: they are still marked by distrust contrary perceptions of history, and psychological misgivings

The killing of Maulana Showkat Ahmed Shah on 8 April 2011 besides silencing a voice of moderation in Kashmir, also gave rise to the prospects of hardening of the radical agenda towards promoting violent means for conflict resolution in Kashmir. Within a week of his death, the radical pronouncements have been reinforced, with the radical leaders demanding for plebiscite (dormant few months back), inviting outside powers like the UK to intervene in the conflict...

With the Taliban writ running large in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan a retrograde medieval practice has come to life with utmost impunity with the imposition of religious tax (Jizya) on the minorities in the region. The Sikh families living in Qasim Khel and Samma Feroz Khel areas of Orakzai agency in FATA have reportedly fled the area as the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) devastated their houses and shops because they could not pay the tax fixed to the tune of 50 million Pakistani rupees, about one million US dollar